Education

Library Guide for ED 646: Single Subject Research Design

Goals from the syllabus:

The Single Subject Research Project (SSRP) is a three course sequence beginning with ED 646, continuing into ED 647, and concluding in ED 648. The purpose of the SSRP is to demonstrate the candidate’s ability to plan, conduct, and analyze behavioral research in their work place with Council for Exceptional Children Advanced Standards and BCBA Standards.

The goals of ED 646 include learning about behavioral research methodologies, developing a research question, obtaining Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, and writing the Introduction, outline and bibliography of the SSRP.

Links:

1. View these Resources for Online/Regional Students & Faculty 

• Click here to request a Personal Research Appointment with Jonathan Lehtonen, the Instruction & Reference Specialist.
• Requesting library books in the mail

2. Library Guide: Research Basics - All Subjects

• Tips for brainstorming, researching sources, and writing.

3. Related Subject Guides: Education and Development

• Education research is often interdisciplinary.

4. CU Search Tutorial Videos

• If you are relatively new to using search databases, watch the following three tutorials:
  • Video: How to filter for books vs. peer-reviewed articles, etc.
  • Video: How to create automatic citations in the database
  • Video: How to compose smarter Boolean searches using AND, OR, & NOT along with quotation marks and parentheses.
• Suggested terms to use when searching for examples of single subject research articles:
  • "single subject" AND _________
  • "single subject" AND behavior
  • "a-b design" AND education
  • ("a-b design" OR "a-b-a design" OR "a-b-a-b design" OR "single subject") AND behavior
  • ("a-b design" OR "a-b-a design" OR "a-b-a-b design" OR "single subject") AND _______
  • "discrete trial" AND (ASD OR autism)
  • Note: your sources don't all have to be single subject studies. Try other combinations of search terms too. Here are a couple examples:
    • "Behavior analysis"
    • "Behavior analysis" and "social stories"
    • "behavior analysis" and ("redirecting" OR "redirection")

5. Try education-related databases to find sources. Top recommended databases:

• Academic Search Complete (EBSCO)
• ERIC - Provided through EBSCOhost
• JSTOR
• ProQuest
• Note: If you find the title of an article you want but cannot access it, try contacting Jonathan Lehtonen (jlehtonen@campbellsville.edu), or try searching for it using the InterLibrary Loan system as explained here.

6. Guide on Citation Styles (Use APA)

7. For more resources about teaching students with special needs, check out our guide on Special Education & Learning Behavior Disorders.

8. Video on avoiding plagiarism, including AI plagiarism (ChatGPT, Grammarly, etc.)

 

Replies to Student Comments and Questions (May 2023):

How to use OR and NOT. Check out this video clip I made about Boolean search operators.

Peer-reviewed articles. Check out this short video clip on search filters in CU Search. Similar filters and checkboxes appear on other databases, such as Academic Search Complete and ProQuest.

How to tell a source is reliable. See the Evaluating Sources guide and the guide on Fact-checking and Fighting Misinformation

How to find the exact subject you are looking for. This is a tough question, but I think the guide page on generating search terms might be helpful. There is also something called subject search, explained in this video clip. 

Is this topic too broad? Discrete trial training in identifying emotions in students with ASD. I would recommend checking with the professor. However, I do have some suggested searches to try in CU Search and Academic Search Complete. I got a lot of good results in Academic Search Complete.

• Start broad first with this phrase in quotes: "discrete trial" 
• Narrow down with this:  "discrete trial" AND (ASD OR autism)
• To connect related topics: "emotions" AND (ASD OR autism)